February 11, 2024 – Texts: 2 Kings 2:1-12; Psalm 50:1-6; Mark chapter 6.
To read this passage online click this link to Biblegateway.com
Today we observe the completion of Epiphany. In this season we hear stories of Jesus being revealed in various ways as God’s beloved son and the world’s savior. It culminates in the event of the transfiguration, in which Jesus is seen utterly changed in form on a mountain top.
The transfiguration story is found in three of the four gospels with remarkably little variation. The first Christians revered it, and no wonder. The narrative contains the revelation of God’s particular glory…the mystery of the meeting of divinity and humanity… the thinning of space…the collapse of time…a purely mystical vision.
This pivotal story in the early church’s oral tradition and later in the written gospels signals Jesus’s irrevocable movement toward the cross. By it we enter the season of Lent. We prepare for Jesus to die, as he must do, defeating death. It’s a very big moment in the church calendar.
So it is peculiar to not read the transfiguration story today. Instead we continue with our self-imposed journey a chapter at a time through the gospel of Mark. We are in the sixth chapter, nowhere near the transfiguration which is in chapter nine. We’ll get there. Just not today.
We continue a headlong dash with Jesus. In just this sixth chapter we go through the landscape of people’s astonishment, offense, resistance, ailments, demons, fears, and in few, dawning awareness of Jesus’s powerful mission. Not that people could recognized in them God’s works.
Here Jesus gives gifts for healing and exorcism to the disciples, like Elisha who received holy gifts through Elijah. The disciples learn they are capable of handling human misery. After a narrative interlude recounting the news of the tragic death of John the Baptist at the careless hands of Herod, Jesus calls a time out.
Jesus and the disciples are exhausted. But people continue to come, empty and hungry. The disciples think the people should feed themselves. Jesus says, no, you feed them. Again the disciples discover unknown capacities in themselves. All Jesus did was to bless their efforts.
Whew! Let’s pause here for a moment. Take a deep breath.
Finally Jesus was able to send the disciples by boat to the other side of the sea. He went up the mountain to pray. This would be a good place to end the chapter.
But it’s not over. After a profitable time of prayer Jesus became aware that the disciples were in distress. A monstrous headwind had come out of nowhere and they were making no progress.
So Jesus went to them. Oddly, he had no intention of joining them. He was just going to pass by.
Any seasoned sailor can tell you that strange things happen on the sea. Visions and visitations. Inexplicable events and illogical outcomes. The disciples saw a ghost walking on the water.
To the disciple’s relief, the ghost resolved into the comforting form of Jesus. He spoke to them, “It is I, do not be afraid”. Actually, Jesus said, “I am, fear not” echoing God’s revelation to Moses, and constant message of encouragement.
Did say I say that the transfiguration comes in chapter nine? So it does. But transfiguration is first found here in this story.
The word transfiguration is literally metamorphosis. The disciples actually see the form of Jesus changed from the physical person they know into something else. They experience the revelation of God’s Spirit before their eyes. The disciples are dramatically shown the one-ness of Jesus with God.
It was a necessary event for the disciples. They also were experiencing transformation. Whatever had defined them before was beginning to give way to a new sense of self and purpose.
But they have a long way to go before their metamorphosis is complete. Which is why this encounter with Jesus ends with the gospel’s parenthetical remark that “…they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.”
Soon enough they were back into the fray with Jesus. As they dealt with more crowds and more needs, the disciples would constantly be challenged to see God’s presence. And dared to look upon thing through the lens of mystical awareness and mindful of compassion.
Gradually, and despite some monumental regressions, they would be transformed by God’s love. Perhaps at the end neither they, nor anyone else, could even recall all the lesser versions of themselves they’d left behind. For they, like Jesus, found themselves completely enveloped in the holy mystery that is God.
Questions to Ponder
What experiences of mystery have you had?
How do you resist the message and work of Jesus?
How are you being transformed by God?
What do you need to leave behind for your transformation?